This invention is concerned with the cooling of electronic components, especially high performance components that generate significant amounts of heat.
Modern high performance computers, commonly known as supercomputers, rely on components that generate amounts of heat that would, absent a cooling system, degrade the performance of the components. Thus, it is common for supercomputers to have dedicated fluid (gas or liquid) cooling systems.
As the far less powerful personal computers increase in capability, they also are beginning to rely on components that generate amounts of heat that must be cooled with more than the simple convection air venting they have used in the past. Common approaches include the use of heat sinks to dissipate the generated heat more efficiently, and fans located immediately adjacent the hottest components (typically the microprocessors).
In any cooled computer system, cooling system design must take into account all the sources of heat under maximum load conditions, in accordance with accepted engineering principles. In simpler designs, all sources of heat are treated the same regardless of location, and their individual cooling needs are simply summed together to determine the total system need.
In some designs, the location of the components generating the greatest amounts of heat are modified to accommodate a more efficient cooling system. An example is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,926,367 (Gutierrez et al.). In this design, the power supply, typically a major source of heat, is physically located within a cooling air plenum (or the housing of the supply is modified in shape and size to become such a plenum). The microprocessors are mounted to the outside of the plenum and either the heat they generate is conducted directly into the plenum by the conductive material of the plenum wall, or heat sinks within the plenum at the locations of the microprocessors conduct the heat into the plenum. A fan blows or pulls air through the plenum.
The invention is a system and method for cooling a plurality of electronic components, comprising a supply of cooling fluid and a plurality of individual fluid supply manifolds. Each supply manifold directs a portion of the fluid, which flows under negative pressure, into thermal contact with its respective electronic component.
In the most preferred embodiment, a heat sink is thermally coupled to the electronic component and located within the flow of cooling fluid directed to that component. The heat sink is designed to both dissipate heat and direct the flow of the fluid in an optimum manner.
In general, the amount of heat generated by any particular electronic component is different from that generated by any other component. Thus, the use of individual sub-supplies and/or individually sized heat sinks can permit the system design to accommodate the different cooling loads placed on it.
Several variations on the configuration of the supply manifold are possible. For example, a common supply may branch into several sub-supplies of cooling fluid, each of which may be coupled to one of the plurality of individual fluid supply manifolds.
Similarly, because there typically is at least one exhaust manifold to collect cooling fluid after it flows over the electronic components, the exhaust manifold also may comprise a plurality of individual component exhaust ducts. This also contributes to the ability of the invention to accommodate different cooling loads.